Wednesday, May 06, 2015

The approaching end of Egypt's Jews

Nadia Haroun: grave desecrated

In this movingly blunt article in Mada Masr, Mina Thabet, an Egyptian Christian, blames the approaching end of Egypt's Jewish community on hate speech, incitement and the authorities' failure to protect minorities. Even the grave of Nadia Haroun, sister to Magda, the leader of Egypt's seven Jews, has not been spared desecration. (With thanks Maier; Lily)

The Egyptian Jewish community is facing the ugly truth that its
existence is coming to an end. The population of Jewish Egyptians has
fallen from 75,000 to 80,000 in 1947 to only seven today . Most of those left are elderly women, who need daily medical care.

I
met Nadia Haroun, the deputy leader of the Jewish community in Egypt,
for the last time in November 2013. I remember that day because I met
her at the same time as her older sister Magda, the community’s leader.
Nadia was smiling while telling me, “Magda told me a lot about you, I
was looking forward to seeing you.” For me, I couldn’t quite believe it.
“Today I met two Jews? I was the one looking forward to that.”

The
Jewish community is the oldest religious community in Egypt, and it has
faced a wave of propaganda, defamation and hate speech. That legacy is
still felt today through stereotypes and slurs that persist in everyday
language.

I was criticized for writing an article in Arabic
entitled, “We are sorry, Jews.” Critics wondered how a Christian could
defend Jews, when they took part in the crucifixion of Jesus.
Ironically, many of those critics are Muslims extremists, some of whom
may themselves be discriminating against Christians.
Unfortunately, Egyptian history is full of violations of the essential rights of minorities and vulnerable groups.

On
November 2, 1945, anti-British, anti-Zionist (and anti-Jewish)
demonstrations took place in Cairo on the occasion of the 28th
anniversary of the Balfour Declaration. A synagogue was burned down, 27
Torah scrolls were desecrated, and a soup kitchen, a home for the aged, a
shelter for poor transients, the Jewish hospital, the quarters of the
Art Society and several Jewish public buildings were damaged or
destroyed.

After
the 1948 war, a hostile environment against Jews strengthened, as they
were suspected of acting as a “fifth column” for Israel. After the 1952
coup, Jews were subject to detention, deportation and sequestration. At
least 900 Jews had been arrested as of December 7, 1956 .
In the mid-50s, then-President Gamal Abdel Nasser started his policy of
nationalization, which had a devastating impact on the Jewish
community, as they controlled a broad sector of the Egyptian economy.
American diplomats noted that sequestration decisions were filed against
539 Jews by name and 105 firms, in addition to Jews covered in the
sequential orders filed against British and French nationals.

In
November 1956, the regime modified its citizenship and nationality laws
in order to keep Jews and other minorities from becoming Egyptian
citizens .
The situation became more complicated at the end of November, by when
at least 500 Egyptian and stateless Jews had been expelled from Egypt ,
not including a considerable number of Jewish citizens of Britain and
France. Most of the expellees were heads of families. They were ordered
to leave the country within two to seven days. In most cases, the
individual served with a deportation order was responsible for
supporting his family, so all members of the family would have to leave
the country . Thus, this measure lead finally to the mass migration of Jews. They almost vanished from Egypt.

A
small number of Jewish families stayed in Egypt, among them leftist
activist Chehata Haroun and his family. According to Haroun’s daughter,
Magda, when her father tried to fly her older sister to Paris for
treatment, Egyptian authorities agreed only to give him an exit visa
with no return, so he left his daughter to die and never left the
country .
When he died in 2001, his family had to bring a French rabbi to perform
the ritual prayer for him, because they did not have a Jewish rabbi in
Egypt.
The same happened with the death of Nadia.

Nadia died
in March 2014, and I had the honor to attend her funeral. Egyptian
state officials did not attend, although they typically attend funerals
of Al-Azhar sheikhs or bishops from the Coptic Church. Nadia left her
older sister Magda alone to carry the burden of the Jewish community in
Egypt.

Early this month, it was the first anniversary of Nadia’s
death, and Magda went to her older sister’s grave along with her current
Christian husband and her Muslim daughters to perform their rites. She
found that a group of youth had desecrated her sister’s grave. They also
insulted her and insulted Judaism .
I can’t imagine how Magda felt about that. It’s very hard for anyone to
see his beloved ones insulted in life and death, just because they had a
different religion.

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Introduction

In just 50 years, almost a million Jews, whose communities stretch back up to 3,000 years, have been 'ethnically cleansed' from 10 Arab countries. These refugees outnumber the Palestinian refugees two to one, but their narrative has all but been ignored. Unlike Palestinian refugees, they fled not war, but systematic persecution. Seen in this light, Israel, where some 50 percent of the Jewish population descend from these refugees and are now full citizens, is the legitimate expression of the self-determination of an oppressed indigenous, Middle Eastern people.This website is dedicated to preserving the memory of the near-extinct Jewish communities, which can never return to what and where they once were - even if they wanted to. It will attempt to pass on the stories of the Jewish refugees and their current struggle for recognition and restitution. Awareness of the injustice done to these Jews can only advance the cause of peace and reconciliation.(Iran: once an ally of Israel, the Islamic Republic of Iran is now an implacable enemy and numbers of Iranian Jews have fallen drastically from 80,000 to 20,000 since the 1979 Islamic revolution. Their plight - and that of all other communities threatened by Islamism - does therefore fall within the scope of this blog.)